print

Information reaching the office of the Communication director of RECOWACERAO NEWS AGENCY, RECONA, indicates that the Holy Father, Pope Francis has appointed New Local Ordinaries for Senegal’s Dakar Archdiocese and Maradi Diocese in Niger

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop André Gueye, the Local Ordinary of Senegal’s Thiès Diocese, as Archbishop of the country’s Catholic Archdiocese of Dakar, and Mons. Ignatius Anipu, as the Local Ordinary of Maradi Diocese in Niger.

The Holy See Press Office made public the appointment of Bishop Gueye and Mons. Anipu as well as the retirements of 76-year-old Local Ordinary of Dakar, Archbishop Benjamin Ndiaye and Bishop Ambroise Ouédraogo of Maradi Diocese, on Saturday, February 22. Archbishop-elect Gueye, Dakar Archdiocese

Set to become the 16th Local Ordinary of the Archdiocese of Dakar, the 58-year-old Senegalese Archbishop-elect has been at the helm of Thiès Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in May 2013.

He has ordained a Priest in June 1992 after completing his philosophical and theological studies at François Libermann Sebikhotane Interdiocesan Major Seminary Dakar and Pontifical Urbaniana University of Rome respectively

As a Priest, the Archbishop-elect served in various capacities, including Assistant Parish Priest, Parish Priest, and teacher of Philosophy at the St. Jean Marie Vianney Major Seminary of the Catholic Diocese of Ziguinchor. He was appointed Bishop of Thiès in January 2013.

Since January 2023, he has been serving as Apostolic Administrator of Saint-Louis du Sénégal Diocese.

Once installed as Archbishop, Archbishop-elect Gueye is to oversee the Senegalese Metropolitan See which measures 4,803 square kilometers with an estimated population of 5,093,320, Catholics numbering 538,940, according to 2023 statistics

The Senegalese Metropolitan See that has Kaolack, Kolda, Saint-Louis du Sénégal, Tambacounda, Thiès, and Ziguinchor as Suffragan Dioceses was erected in 1863 as Apostolic Vicariate of Senegambia from the Apostolic Vicariate of Two Guineas and Senegambia in Gabon before its elevation to an Archdiocese in September 1955.

Born in November 1959 in the Catholic Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga in Ghana, the Ghanaian Bishop-elect has been serving as Delegate of the Provincial of Western Africa of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers/MAfr.).

The Director of the Institut de Formation Islamo-Chrétienne (IFIC) of Bamako in Mali was ordained a Priest in July 1991 after completing his philosophical and theological studies at St. Victor’s Major Seminary in Tamale, Ghana, and the Institut Catholique de Toulouse respectively

As a Priest, he served in various capacities, including Parish Vicar of St. Teresa of Ávila in Zinder, National Chaplain for Niger’s youth, Parish priest of St. Vincent de Paul in Birni N’Konni, and provincial counselor

The bishop-elect also served as head of the Community of the White Fathers of Birni N’Konni, lecturer in missiology, traditional African religions, and Islamology at the Missionary Institute of London in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Mons. served as Provincial of the White Fathers for West Africa and general assistant and general counselor of the White Fathers in Rome.

BISHOP ANDRÉ GUEYE (LEFT), APPOINTED LOCAL ORDINARY OF SENEGAL’S CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF DAKAR, AND MONS. IGNATIUS ANIPU (LEFT), THE NEW BISHOP OF MARADI DIOCESE IN NIGER.

Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu
Latest posts by Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu (see all)